Systemic risk markers for cardiovascular diseases, effect of periodontal treatment : A literature study

ABSTRACT Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) can be a risk factor for periodontitis, but periodontitis can also be a marker for an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, the infectious biological effects may also be risk factors, such as increased number of cytokines or periodontal bacteria in the circulation. Aim of study: 1. To find systemic risk markers associated with an increased risk for CVD. 2. To study change of the selected biomarkers after periodontal treatment. Methods: Using articles from PubMed showing different risk markers that associate strongly with an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Inclusion criteria for the studies, the patients having periodontitis at baseline which has been clinically significant improved after treatment and that the risk markers have been measured before and after treatment. Additionally, these studies have contained enough individuals to be able to answer our question. We found 11 articles which fulfilled the criteria described above. Results: According to different studies, we have observed that there are significant risk markers associating with both periodontitis and CVD, and they have decreased after periodontal treatment. The most common risk markers are cholesterol, LDL, HDL, CRP and cytokines. All 11 studies showed significant decrease of at least one of the selected risk markers after periodontal treatment, while 2 of them also showed increased levels of several risk markers. Conclusion: We have found that successful treatment of periodontitis decreases systemic risk markers that are associated with increased risk for CVD. The clinical parameters for definition of periodontitis has been significantly improved.